Berkman homers as Astros keep rolling

SAN FRANCISCO (Ticker) - Lance Berkman made sure Barry Zito
would have to wait even longer for his elusive first win of the
season.

Berkman clubbed a two-run home run to deep left center in the
sixth inning, helping the Houston Astros to a 7-3 victory
against the San Francisco Giants on Monday in the opener of a
four-game series.

San Francisco jumped on the board first on back-to-back RBI
doubles from Fred Lewis and Omar Vizquel, staking the Giants to
a 2-0 lead. Rookie John Bowker hit his fourth home run of the
season to the arcade in right off Roy Oswalt (4-3) in the fourth
to put the Giants up 3-0.

For a while Zito took advantage of the run support, keeping the
Astros scoreless through five innings and made it into the sixth
for the first time since April 16 at Arizona.

"I was a little more aggressive," said Zito, who is off to an
0-7 start. "I left a few changeups up, gave up some hits - most
of the hits were off changeups. That was the difference. I
don't know if I'm building toward a win. That's out of my
control, but I was trying to be more aggressive out there."

Things unraveled quickly in the sixth as Hunter Pence and Mark
Loretta hit back-to-back singles to lead off the inning. A
sacrifice fly by Tejada and a two-run home run by Berkman tied
the score at 3-3.

"The guys are playing well and you want to try and win as many
games as you can when its like this," Berkman said. "The
offense hung around until we got the opportunity. We had some
opportunities earlier we didn't capitalize on. It felt good to
tie it because Roy doesn't give up much more than three runs."

Berkman extended his hitting streak to 11 games, batting .605
(26-for-43) with five homers and 15 RBI during the span.

"It doesn't look like he's swinging hard at all," Astros manager
Cecil Cooper said of Berkman. "There was the one at-bat when
he got out of himself, but the next time - in the same situation
- he just took a nice smooth swing."

"I've watched him for eight years. I've seen him hot before,
but I've never seen him this hot," Oswalt added. "A lot of
times, he gets hot one side of the plate or other. This time
he's gotten hot on both sides and is doing some damage."

Zito surrendered three runs and seven hits with a walk and two
strikeouts over six innings.

"It's not about me getting wins; it's about my team getting
wins," Zito said. "Unfortunately, it didn't happen tonight.
For me to make pitches, be aggressive, those are things that
make me feel good that make me satisfied out there."

"I thought he pitched well," Cooper said of Zito. "I thought he
spotted his fastball and he had a good breaking ball. He made
pitches. We hit two or three balls hard off him, but he made
pitches."

Houston took a 4-3 lead off reliever Vinnie Chulk (0-1) in the
seventh on Hunter Pence's sacrifice fly, which was enough for
Oswalt.

After allowing the home run to Bowker, the Astros ace settled
down and retired his next 14 batters before giving way to Geoff
Geary in the ninth. Oswalt pitched eight innings, allowing
three runs and five hits with six strikeouts and no walks.

"I felt a lot better the last three innings," Oswalt said. "The
way you pick up wins is by going deep in a ballgame. If you're
not going deep in games, going in to the seventh or eighth
inning, you're not going to win many."

Berkman capped his three-hit night with a double in the eighth,
which led to a three-run rally to give Houston a 7-3 advantage.

San Francisco rallied and loaded the bases with two outs in the
ninth, but closer Jose Valverde recovered and got pinch-hitter
Ray Durham to fly out to left to end the threat and collect his
ninth save of the season.

With a single to lead off the third, Brad Ausmus became just the
eighth catcher in major league history to record 1,500 career
hits and 100 stolen bases.

NLAT SAN FRANCISCO - SCORING UPDATETWO-RUN HOME RUN BY LANCE BERKMAN (13) TO CENTER WITH 1 OUT IN THE 6TH OFF BARRY ZITO SCORED MARK LORETTA.CURRENT SCORE: HOUSTON 3, SAN FRANCISCO 3DUE UP FOR HOUSTON: C LEE (.278, 0-FOR-2)

NLAT SAN FRANCISCO - SCORING UPDATESOLO HOME RUN BY JOHN BOWKER (4) TO RIGHT WITH 1 OUT IN THE 4TH OFF ROY OSWALT.CURRENT SCORE: HOUSTON 0, SAN FRANCISCO 3DUE UP FOR SAN FRANCISCO: R AURILIA (.253, 0-FOR-1)